KPU may delay naming qualified parties

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) could announce which political parties qualified to contest the 2004 elections in stages, another disruption to its initial schedule.

A KPU executive attributed the modification to its regional offices (KPUDs), which might fail to complete their jobs on time.

"We are worried that some KPUDs will be unable to submit the results of their factual verification of parties on Nov. 27 at the latest," KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah, who heads the commission's verification team, said last week.

He said provincial, regental/municipal KPUDs in Maluku and Papua had indicated that they might fail to finish their party verification procedures on schedule due to transportation problems.

The KPU is scheduled to announce which parties are eligible to contest the general election on Dec. 2.

"But we should not exceed the Dec. 8 date for the announcement of numerical order of parties contesting the general election," he said.

Indonesians enjoyed an extended weekend from Nov. 22 to Nov. 26 due to Idul Fitri holiday, which fell on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26.

The KPU has sent letter to all KPUDs, instructing them to submit factual screening results on Nov. 27 at the latest.

In the letter, the KPU said it planned to hold a plenary meeting with KPUD members between Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 before announcing the party lists on Dec. 2.

A total of 50 parties registered with the KPU to contest next year's elections, but only 46 passed the commission's early administrative screening, which ended late in October.

Factual verification by KPUDs was conducted until Nov. 20, during which a provincial KPUD carried out a field check on the presence of parties branch offices and board of executives.

At the same time, KPUDs in regencies/municipalities check branch offices of parties and their board of executives, verify the authenticity of 10 percent of the parties' membership cards.

A party must at least pass factual screening in 21 provinces and two-thirds of the total regencies/municipalities in the 21 provinces to contest next year's elections.

The last polls in 1999 saw 48 parties participating, but only one third of them won legislative seats and only six of them fulfilled the electoral threshold of 10 House of Representatives seats.